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I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

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Friday, May 17, 2013

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the big bake sale that was being planned to raise funds for recovery efforts in West, Texas. I’m thrilled to report that it was a huge success, and we’re all so thankful to everyone who came out for the sale and made donations online. The total raised was over $19,000! As planned, I baked more of the Chocolate Chip and Cherry Scones, and I wanted to bring a second option to the sale as well. I was in a crumb cake kind of mood, and really, I’m always in the mood for a crumb topping. I found a great recipe in Baking: From My Home to Yours for a Cardamom Crumb Cake that has orange zest and espresso powder in the cake itself and in the crumb topping. I had to try it. Since I was baking for a bake sale, I made individual, small cakes in paper molds that are actually made for crumb cakes or so says the label. The little cakes were easy to slip into cellophane bags. I doubled the recipe in the book, lined up the paper cups on a baking sheet, and started filling them until the batter was gone. I ended up with ten little cakes. These paper molds are sturdier than a regular cupcake liner, but they didn’t hold their shape perfectly. What was perfect was the aroma of cardamom, espresso, and orange zest as the cakes baked.

You start with the most important part—the crumbs. Flour, chopped toasted walnuts, sugar, orange zest, instant espresso powder and I always add a little extra, and cardamom were combined in a bowl. Butter was then worked into the flour mixture but not overworked. Big pieces of crumb topping are always a good thing. For the cake, flour, baking powder, and salt were combined with more cardamom and espresso powder. More orange zest was mixed with sugar, and Dorie suggests rubbing the sugar and orange zest together with your hands. It releases the oil from the zest and ensures the zest will be well-distributed in the batter. The wet ingredients included melted and cooled butter, eggs, whole milk, brewed coffee, and vanilla extract, and they were whisked together and then stirred into the dry ingredients. I scooped the batter into the crumb cake cups and topped each cup with crumb mixture. My little cakes baked for about 20 minutes.

I only kept one cake at home to taste and soon wished I kept at least two. But, luckily, it’ll be quick and easy to mix up the batter and crumbs again. In the book, Dorie includes a tip about baking extra crumbs on a baking sheet and using them to top pots de creme or ice cream. That’s one more reason I’ll be making this again soon.

Wow congratulations on the Bake Sale results! Stupendous! And wonderful, homey crumb cakes... the flavors sound wonderful and somehow warming and cozy. I have the cookbook but haven't baked from it for ages. Now I must!

Lisa, these sound lovely! Espresso powder and orange zest go well together.My niece,(who was my partner in a bakery/restaurant some time back),uses the combination in a biscotti that is heavenly.And , good for you , being part of the successful fundraiser.I feel for those involved.Sorry I really haven't been around or on my Food,Friends, Family blog for a while until last night, but I am glad to be back and also visiting you and others. Nice job!Tonettehttp://tonettejoycefoodfriendsfamily.wordpress.com/

I don't see a recipe??? I'm finding it's taking time to find when googled ( if that's what you want us to do.) It's so nice when a recipe is posted and we bakers can just follow it. Even just a direct link to the original recipe would be sooo helpful...just a thought! Still looking for this one! Sounds so good.

Susan: I've always made it a policy to not include copyrighted recipes from books unless I have a publisher's permission to reprint them. It's just something I've always done out of respect for cookbook authors and all the people involved in producing the books.

I understand your concerns but you perhaps should provide a link to the original so it's not so frustrating for us to look for the recipe...or, at least, me!... I just want to get the recipe and bake it. If I have to search all over I loose interest. Just saying!